Archive for the ‘David Olasov’ tag

Bob Fulcher of American Classic Restorations is handling the restoration of this Ford GPA.
photo courtesy American Classic Restorations

Golly, talk about a break with routine. Here is a highly common military vehicle, a 1943 Ford GPA, which was much better known by The Greatest Generation as simply an amphibious Jeep.

The name fits ideally, because it’s worth recalling that the majority of Jeeps used in World War II were actually built by Ford, even though they were initially designed by Willys and approved for mass wartime production. Eventually, the War Department decided it wanted a quarter-ton truck with all-wheel drive and superior fording capability, and the result was the Ford GPA.

“Under the original contract, and then a second contract, I believe that Ford made about 12,790 of them in 1942 and 1943. We think there are only a very small handful of them left in the United States, and another small handful in Australia,” explained Bob Fulcher, proprietor of American Classic Restorations in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, which is handling this GPA’s restoration. His shop is mostly into very elaborate resurrections of muscle cars, including a brace of national award-winning Chevelles and a very rare, very early 440 Six Pack Dodge Challenger, assembled in July 1969 as a dealer promo car. Fulcher still decided to take on the little green frog.

The real push for the project came from David Olasov, a car collector and attorney from Brooklyn, New York, who was determined to locate and redo an authentic GPA. It took years, but Olasov finally found an almost perfectly complete example in Kansas, with a numbers-matching drivetrain, all its original gauges and an original winch. It apparently never left the United States after Ford assembled it. He asked American Classic to take on the job.

Fulcher said the GPA’s biggest challenge has been some rusted flooring, which his team fabricated and welded in per factory practice. The amphibian should be complete and painted by June. You can learn more by visiting www.american-classic.com.

(This post originally appeared in the April 24, 2008, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)